The Regency Ballroom (San Francisco, CA)
03/12/23
PUP, the four-piece band from Toronto, took over the Regency Ballroom stage in San Francisco alongside Joyce Manor for the weekend for back-to-back shows for their co-headlining tour through the states. The co-headlining shows in March followed eight months of non-stop touring in 2022 after releasing their fourth studio album, The Unraveling of PUPTheBand, at the beginning of April last year. With no sign of any fatigue from touring, they ended the night following Joyce Manor and opener Pool Kids with an energetic and sweaty set.
Opening with “If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will” and “DVP,” their most streamed song on Spotify, both from 2016 sophomore album This Dream is Over, PUP brought the energy through the roof right from the start. Immediately, crowd-surfers made their way up to the front of the pit where those on the barricade were screaming the words with their hands in the air. The show continued with the level of energy never waning as the band played songs from all four of their albums, including “Dark Days” from their self-titled debut album, “Matilda” from their newest album, and “Morbid Stuff” and “Kids” from their 2019 album, Morbid Stuff. Mosh and circle pits opened up countless times and the crowd-surfing was a constant throughout the night with fans going for multiple rounds.
As rowdy as it was, lead singer Stefan Babcock spoke to the crowd a decent amount, including asking everyone to keep each other safe towards the beginning of the set. He was not going to compromise safety for fun, but also vice versa – towards the end of “Scorpion Hill,” he asked the crowd for a non-violent circle pit, to which the crowd complied. Injecting some humor into the night, he introduced the song “Matilda” by saying the only love song on their last record is about “her,” referring to Matilda, A.K.A. his guitar. Upon the mention of Matilda, the crowd started barking, a phenomenon that started happening at concerts in the past year and apparently had spread to this particular crowd, to which Stefan reacted with bewildered laughter and said, “San Francsico is fucked up.”
Despite how hot and stuffy the venue was, the energy in the crowd only went up as the set neared its end. At some point, Stefan jumped into the crowd as the rest of the band, bassist Nestor Chumak, guitarist Steve Sladkowski, and drummer Zack Mykula continued to tear it up onstage. Before the final two songs of the night, Stefan explicitly told the crowd there would be no encore, so the crowd knew to go wild. The final song of the night, “Kids,” prompted a wave of crowd-surfers, and the band finished the set with their instruments raised in the air, ending the night on a high note.
